A pleasant symphony.

And after the cold desolate Sunday, there came a warm symphony of human emotion on Monday. That doesn’t happen too often in the States, now does it?

We awoke on Monday morning not quite knowing what to expect, wondering if it was a good idea to leave our nice warm beds. But, Sam vetoed my suggestion that we stay indoors all day long, so off we went. It was a good thing to, because yesterday was an excellent example of pleasant Irish weather. The wind calmed itself down to a gentle breeze. It never did get very cold at all. And between the times of sprinkling rain, the sun peaked its face out from among the clouds. Rain or shine, the clouds here are something to behold. Its not uncommon to look up and see small, wispy white clouds that make pleasant shapes in a blue sky, while just beyond them (meaning higher up in the sky) you can see a large looming mass of grey thunderhead. The thunder never comes, only the gentle rain, but still, it’s a sight to behold.

The nice weather gave us a renewed vigor to go and explore, and God blessed us with a goldmine in the form of a school/cultural centre in a lesser known Irish neighborhood. I’ll admit, at first we felt like a couple of creepers walking right up to the chain link fence of this elementary school, waltzing right through the open gate, and down to a large building in the middle of the school grounds that we sincerely hoped was the public community center. I ventured up to the only access point we could find and bravely buzzed the call button. I will admit, our hearts began to sink a little when nobody came to the door.

But Ah! Our efforts were not in vain after all! After a bit of a delay, we were warmly greeted by a lady from the community center and it was all sunshine from there. We were tossed around like a bouncy ball from one school official to another, each one more pleasant and helpful than the last, answering our plethora of questions as best they could, speaking Irish with us and helping our boldness to grow. We ended up talking to the principal of the school, a delightful lady whose scatter-brained personality made me feel right at home. We walked away with our first formal interview, an entire page of leads to follow up on throughout the city, and more than a little spring in our step.

The rest of our day was a series of minor ups and downs. We spent the majority of the afternoon uploading pictures and doing online research at McDonalds. We went back to the Culterlonn for Irish lessons only to find the place all locked up and nobody around. While standing at the bus stop waiting to head back into town, the bus that was supposed to stop just passed on by. Twice. Sam pointed out that some goobers had parked in the bus lane were the buses are supposed to pull over in order to pick up passengers and with no where to stop with out halting traffic the bus drivers just kept going. I figured it was just cause we were Americans. Once we walked to a different bus stop and finally caught a ride, we were kicked off at the end of the line, in a different part of the city than we were used to. Come to find out, we were only a couple of blocks from very familiar territory, but it was enough to get us turned around. Needless to say we ended up lost. We kept our optimism however, and laughed our way through the northern streets of Belfast. Once we found our way again, we decided to stop for a bite and then head back to the hostel.

It was at KFC that I had one of those quite conversations that I tend to have with myself. The ones that sometimes end up with me having a pretty neat little thought. I realized that even after the good day we’d had, and in the middle of this city full of people, and sitting across the table from Sam, I couldn’t help but feel a little tinge of…. lonely. I explained what I was feeling to Sam and we verified that even though it wasn’t the best term, lonely was close enough to describing what was going on inside of me.

It was that kind of feeling you get when we’re in the middle of a crowd of people and still feel like you’re cut off from everyone else, although, not quite in the depressed, sad country song kinda way. I felt the desperate need for intimate… yes, that’s the word I was looking for, intimate… human contact. If you’ve never really felt this way, then I can’t explain it to you, its something you have to experience. Normally, Sam is perfect for these situations, he’s always got a interesting thought and a kind word to offer at these times. But, I’d been with this guy every minute of the day for the last 10 days, and I needed something… fresh. As I voiced my feelings to Sam, he completely understood, and even helped figure out the best way to describe what was going through my head. When I figured out what was going on, my first reaction was to hurry back to the hostel, buy an hour’s worth of Wi-Fi, and get my intimate interaction fix on Facebook. Chat with friends, message people, stuff like that.

That’s when it hit me. Here I was failing to follow my own advice again. Sorta. In my last blog, I pointed out how our first reaction when times are tough should be to run to God. Well, what about when times aren’t so tough? What about when times are good and we just need to tell somebody about it, and enjoy a little emotional intimacy with someone? Shouldn’t we run to God in those times to? God doesn’t just want our troubles, He wants our joys to. He wants to see the happiness on His children’s faces and feel us share our lives with Him. I knew that, I’ve always known that, but I don’t think it had ever really sunk in until that moment.

I went back to the hostel, curled up on my bed, put some soft music going through my iPod, and just rested in God. Prayed to Him, told Him about our day. Now, I don’t claim to hear actual words from God, but I get impressions, changes in my mood that can only come from Heaven. And at that moment, I felt peace. I felt the symphony coming to a pleasant end. I felt God placing a hand on my shoulder and whispering “now you’re starting to get the idea.”

-Ethan Bossier

Day 10 in Belfast